O Glorious France Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEFGAHIJK LAMNOLPQRSTQUVWXYZO LA2B2NC2D2E2F2G2H2I2 J2 NK2L2AM2IA2N2G2O2A P2Q2R2S2T2R2U2H2V2YW 2

You have become a forge of snow white fireA
A crucible of molten steel O FranceB
Your sons are stars who cluster to a dawnC
And fade in light for you O glorious FranceB
They pass through meteor changes with a songD
Which to all islands and all continentsE
Says life is neither comfort wealth nor fameF
Nor quiet hearthstones friendship wife nor childG
Nor love nor youth's delight nor manhood's powerA
Nor many days spent in a chosen workH
Nor honored merit nor the patterned themeI
Of daily labor nor the crowns nor wreathsJ
Of seventy yearsK
-
These are not all of lifeL
O France whose sons amid the rolling thunderA
Of cannon stand in trenches where the deadM
Clog the ensanguined ice But life to theseN
Prophetic and enraptured souls in visionO
And the keen ecstasy of faded strifeL
And divination of the loss as gainP
And reading mysteries with brightened eyesQ
In fiery shock and dazzling pain beforeR
The orient splendour of the face of DeathS
As a great light beside a shadowy seaT
And in a high will's strenuous exerciseQ
Where the warmed spirit finds its fullest strengthU
And is no more afraid and in the strokeV
Of azure lightning when the hidden essenceW
And shifting meaning of man's spiritual worthX
And mystical significance in timeY
Are instantly distilled to one clear dropZ
Which mirrors earth and heavenO
-
This is lifeL
Flaming to heaven in a minute's spanA2
When the breath of battle blows the smouldering sparkB2
And across these seasN
We who cry Peace and treasure life and clingC2
To cities happiness or daily toilD2
For daily bread or trail the long routineE2
Of seventy years taste not the terrible wineF2
Whereof you drink who drain and toss the cupG2
Empty and ringing by the finished feastH2
Or have it shaken from your hand by sightI2
Of God against the olive woodsJ2
-
As Joan of Arc amid the apple treesN
With sacred joy first heard the voices thenK2
Obeying plunged at Orleans in a fieldL2
Of spears and lived her dream and died in fireA
Thou France hast heard the voices and hast livedM2
The dream and known the meaning of the dreamI
And read its riddle how the soul of manA2
May to one greatest purpose make itselfN2
A lens of clearness how it loves the cupG2
Of deepest truth and how its bitterest gallO2
Turns sweet to soul's surrenderA
-
And you sayP2
Take days for repitition stretch your handsQ2
For mocked renewal of familiar thingsR2
The beaten path the chair beside the windowS2
The crowded street the task the accustomed sleepT2
And waking to the task or many springsR2
Of lifted cloud blue water flowering fieldsU2
The prison house grows close no less the feastH2
A place of memory sick for senses dulledV2
Down to the dusty end where pitiful TimeY
Grown weary cries EnoughW2

Edgar Lee Masters



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